Friday, October 30, 2009

A spooky rehearsal today, gave way to these 2 performance of the song, "The Headless Horseman," originally sung by Bing Crosby back in 1948! (Thanks Suz!) I knew the song from an old record I used to play as a kid. The chorus seemed to enjoy the tune quite a bit today as they learned then performed it... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Also, just got word that SILive.com posted a write-up on yesterday's event with a great picture of the chorus! I was told that it is expected to be featured in either tomorrow's or next Thursday's edition of the Staten Island Advance. So be on the look out. But for now, you can check out the article (with a great pic too!) here.

Yesterday the PS22 Chorus of 2010 performed at the Cross Cultural Youth Festival we blogged about a few days ago. The event was absolutely amazing, as expected! The kids performed "Can You Hear Me" with the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland, led by the amazing duo of D'ahvionne and Kaitlynn! Then the kids performed an acoustic guitar version of "Run This Town" by Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West as an encore, led by Karinna and Alyssa! Here is some AMAZING video footage from the event.... (courtesy of Ms.Lisa, probably 2 of the nicest looking chorus videos ever-filmed!)

Sunday, October 25, 2009

On Tuesday, the PS22 Chorus of 2010 will be performing with the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland in a N.Y.C. D.O.E. sponsored event at the Armory Track & Field in Washington Heights. The chorus is going to perform the beautiful "Can You Hear Me " by Jim Papoulis with the CBOI, and do one of our own songs for an encore! You can find out more about the orchestra in the video below.

PS22 will be one of several groups performing with the extremely talented youth orchestra. You can see the fantastic line up of talent below, which includes the phenomenal ballrooming dancing project featured in the highly successful documentary, Mad Hot Ballroom! Also the Keltic Dreams Irish Dancers from PS59 in the Bronx who've made news recently for their amazing project will be showing their stuff! Check 'em out!

The performance will be webcast live and you can listen here starting at 10:00 AM going to 12:00 PM. The orchestra will also be performing at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center on October 29th. We wish them the best of luck, and of course are looking forward to making music with them at the Armory! Some more info for the CCYF below:

The Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland (CBOI) will headline a New York City Cross-Cultural Youth Festival (CCYF) on October 27th from 10am to 12noon. The CBOI will perform with seven other school groups from around the city, to an audience of more than 2,500 New York City school children. This event is a community outreach effort, a CBOI “giveback”.

The purpose of this event is to promote peace, tolerance and unity among today's youth, all the while increasing awareness and stressing the importance of Arts and Culture programs within the public school system and encouraging youth participation.

The participating groups will represent the many genres of the world of Music and the Performing Arts, to include, but not limited to:

The festival provides local, performing arts groups the opportunity to perform with a full symphony orchestra of their peers. It encourages and affords students considering the performing arts access to talented dance, choral and instrumental performances. Performers and the audience alike will experience traditional Irish music and dance, hip-hop dancers, a Latin dance troupe, rhythmic gymnasts and numerous choral performances.

From last week's rehearsal, here is the great song "We're Going To Be Friends" by The White Stripes. It was also recorded by Jack Johnson for the Curious George soundtrack, and a long-time request from the principal! Mr. Eberle picks up the bass guitar on this one, and makes the song sound even better!

Friday, October 23, 2009

The kids had another great rehearsal today, as evidenced by the video below! The song is the classic "Come Sail Away," by the awesome eighties band, Styx! The kids breathe new life into it, and show how much fun it is to be in the PS22 Chorus of 2010! (Though it seems that Mr. B may be in dire need of some piano lessons....)

UPDATE: The new video has already earned itself some YouTube honors, including the #42 Top Rated Music Video!

UPDATE 2: Perez Hilton just tweeted about our "beautiful new video" on his Twitter page! Thanks to Mr. P for his continued support!

Monday, October 19, 2009

After posting the a capella version just days before, Ashton Kutcher re-tweeted about our new piano version of "Halo" video again last night, calling it "simply inspired!" Thanks go out again to one of the chorus's biggest supporters! For more of the many PS22 Chorus tweets from Ashton, start here!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Here the PS22 Chorus of 2010 sings "Halo" by Beyonce with piano. (Check out the previously posted a capella version here) Brielle is astounding on this, and the chorus is really blending beautifully. You can hear the harmonies coming in much tighter(especially on the a capella part) now that we're a month in. The kids took it up a notch the day "Run This Town" was filmed.

At the end, there's a little montage of my screw-ups. (I was attempting to adjust to the new key after deciding to take it up a half step.) I'm sure we could get a better version, but this one makes me smile every time I watch. And the second half of the song is perfection.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Yesterday the chorus got a visit from legendary PS22 Chorus of 2004 soloist, Clive! Clive is best remembered at PS22 as "Back Door Santa," and also as one of the coolest of kids with the oldest of souls. The chorus of 2010 got treated to an impromptu performance of his signature song upon his arrival. Check it out below, as well as Clive's original rendition from PS22's Fourth Annual Holiday Choral Concert of 2003 of this Clarence Carter classic!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Tonight the PS22 Chorus of 2010 got tweeted about yet again by one of the group's biggest supporters, Ashton Kutcher! This time he gives the link to our a capella version of "Halo." Thanks for the plug for the kids, AND the plug for the arts! For more of Ashton's PS22 Chorus tweets, click here.

Congrats to the PS22 Chorus of 2010 who received a nod from guitarist Tom Kaulitz of the German band Tokio Hotel! On his personal blog on the band's official website, Tom linked to the new group's version of "Run This Town" and said,

"Pretty cool what this school choir got together...I definitely love the attitude these kids are showing - awesome!"

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

PS22 has been the hot topic this week with the new chorus of 2010 taking over the viral video charts with the song, "Run This Town," by Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West, which became the #1 most watched music video this past Sunday on YouTube! (See more honors the kids' video has received here.) In addition to another nod from our friend Ashton Kutcher, the kids' hard work has been acknowledged this week on Ryan Seacrest's official website, the Z100 Elvis & Duran morning show, and the Baltimore Examiner. Check out the screencaps below!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Thanks to Ashton Kutcher for yet another PS22 Chorus shout out on his Twitter page! This time he links to the kids version of "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey! For previous Ashton tweets about the chorus, start here.

Already the video is accruing YouTube honors, including the #1 Most Viewed Music Video on YouTube, and #7 Most Viewed Video overall!! UNBELIEVABLE!!

UPDATE: In addition the chorus's YouTube channel is the #1 Most Viewed Musician's Channel on YouTube, on Sunday, October 11th!

UPDATE: Just found this video of Karinna from our 2004 Holiday Choral Concert, when she was just 5 years old! So adorable, and yet the talent was obvious even then!

UPDATE: As per Suz's request, here is Karinna's performance from our second American Idol finale, with the young lady herself singing, "I Still Believe" by Brenda K. Starr (and later covered by Mariah Carey).

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Nancy & Elena from Beyond The Ordinary Internet Radio. The interview is now up along with some musical selections from the chorus interspersed throughout. You can check it out above, or download the interview (and see a nice write-up of the chorus) on the Beyond The Ordinary website.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Found this video from the Billboard Magazine event honoring Beyonce as Woman Of The Year! They even included a little bit of footage of the kids singing "Single Ladies" and them posing with Beyonce at the end of the vid! To see our footage from the performance, click here.

UPDATE: Here's another great video of reflections from the kids on their Beyonce/Lady Gaga experience.

And we leave you with another great screen cap from the Billboard vid!

Monday, October 05, 2009

It was truly a special day for the chorus on Friday. In addition to the performance the kids gave for Beyonce and Lady Gaga at The Billboard Women In Music Celebration Brunch, the PS22 Chorus received it's second award from the Council of Arts & Humanities in Staten Island. (The PS22 Chorus also received this award back in 2003.) At the ceremony, they ran this video that was prepared by Time Warner Cable, who was kind enough to give me a copy on DVD, as well as permission to post it to our channel and blog. Check it out below.

Brielle, Ethan, and brother & sister chorus members Neil & Ashley were on hand to represent the group, and each child gave a short acceptance speech. In addition, Brielle even give a small a capella reprise of her performance of "Halo" to a room full of dropped jaws! Congrats kids on another amazing accomplishment!

Yes, our friend Ashton Kutcher (who is slowly starting to feel more like part of the family) has tweeted about PS22 for the fifth time in less than 2 weeks! This time he links to the kids' version of "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac on his very widely read Twitter page! Fantastic!

Congrats to the PS22 Chorus of 2010! This year's group brought our YouTube channel back into the Top 10 today with their two amazing renditions of "Halo" by Beyonce, both of which have received YouTube honors of their own! (See previous posts!) To celebrate this accomplishment, we've made a lot of changes on the blog, most notably the new header! Big thanks to Zendrig for taking the time to help give the website a fantastic new look!! You can see a screencap of the chorus's YouTube channel below! Notice at the bottom that the kids have the #10 Most Viewed Musician's Channel!

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Yesterday the PS22 Chorus had a day that we'll all never forget! Billboard Magazine contacted us last week to have the chorus surprise Beyonce with PS22 renditions of "Halo" and "Single Ladies" by the lady herself, who was being honored as Woman of the Year at Billboard's Women In Music Celebration Brunch! You can watch it go down in the video below!

The gala event took place at the beautiful Hotel Pierre in NYC. Also in attendance was Lady Gaga, who was also being honored as this year's Rising Artist. Lady Gaga of course is significant to the PS22 Chorus as our most watched YouTube is "Just Dance" with over a million views to its credit. You can see how charmed she was by the PS22 Chorus performance in the pic below!

My mom also played a part in the show, and was on the stage giving us the piano intro to "Single Ladies." That gave her a great vantage point to take that amazing pic you see above of Lady Gaga, and the one below of Beyonce (AND her parents!) responding to the kids' performance! You can see the entire audience was completely enraptured by the chorus -- smiling, laughing, and crying, and all with good reason!!

The kids were indeed unbelievable, especially when considering they have only been together as a group for 3 weeks and had just ONE week to learn both songs! Major props also must go to Brielle, who did some absolutely magnificent soloing! Way to nail those high notes!!

Both Beyonce and Lady Gaga were awesome and came over to the group after the performance for some pictures, hugs, and compliments! Needless to say it was a completely inspiring meeting of the musical minds for both young and...... younger!!

Very proud to announce that the video of the kids singing for Beyonce has already begun earning YouTube honors including the #40 Most Viewed Music Video and the #32 Top Rated Music Video today!

Enjoy some more pics which are, as well as the rest throughout this post, courtesy of my dad, mom, Ms. Lisa, Mrs. Johnson, and the Associated Press from this extraordinary performance below!

Tori Amos

"They were so good! Their arrangements -- their sound -- it was so good.... It was...... disarming. It means so much that they took it and made it their own."-- Tori Amos after a private performance by the PS22 Chorusof her songs at the Sony Atrium in N.Y.C.

Common

"I feel honored to perform with PS22. The energy brought me up to a natural high on music and art, and just the spirits of you all. You all are so exciting to perform with..... I'm gonna remember this day forever."--hip hop legendCommonon performing with the PS22 Chorus at the National Tree Lighting 2009 for President Obama

David Cook

"Oh my God! It's ridiculous... It is incredible how good you guys are!!"-- David Cook, American Idol winner, after singing with PS22 Chorus!

Bonnie Hunt

Innocence Mission

"What a beautiful, beautiful, joyful version. It is a huge improvement on the original. The children brought tears to my eyes with their glorious singing and smiles. I so love the energy of this performance, the arrangement, the harmonies, everything."-- Karen PerisofThe Innocence Missionin apersonal message to the PS22 Chorusafter seeing the kids' video of the song "There" from their album, GLOW

Tribute WTC

Wikipedia

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IMPROVS

Improvising is a skill that really demands great natural musical ability, particularly to do it at 9 or 10 years old! All of the following songs were being created and recorded as you hear them here (with some minor post-editing). PS22 Chorus member JUSTIN, with occasional super-special guests including legendary PS22 Chorus Alumni CLIVE, DEON, BEN, ADIZA, KARIMA, BRI-AH, & AMANDA D., demonstrates the technique brilliantly.

Stevie Nicks

B.J. Novak

"My God! We watch you all the time at work, at The Office, all the actors, all the writers... You guys are amazing! I swear to you, you're an inspiration, keep it up!"-- B.J. Novak, star of The Office, raves about the PS22 Chorusat The Webby Awards!

Sinead O'Connor

"Most beautiful, joyous thing I seen apart from me own children ." -- Sinead O'Connorafter seeing the PS22 Chorus video of her song "Jackie!" PS22 was then invited to be the opening act for her concert at the Highline Ballroom in New York City.

Passion Pit

"These kids made the record what we had been dreaming it to be, as they are integral parts of three songs.... It felt so unbelievable to have the exact sound that I wanted coming through the headphones...."-- Michael Angelakosof Passion Pit on recording with the PS22 Chorus

Nancy Pelosi

"...You indeed, as you sing, 'rule the world!'"--Speaker of the HouseNancy Pelosiafter hearing the chorus sing at the Capitol